Artful Steps Gallery Keeps Library Colorful

The walls of the Main Library are a lot more colorful these days, thanks to a display of paintings and prints from the students of the Artful Steps program. 

Artful Steps is the visual art program at Stepping Stones Growth Center, a non-profit agency that promotes independence for the developmentally disabled. …. More

James’ Mystery to Play at CCT

The California Conservatory Theatre opens its fourth production of the season on Thursday, April 3, with “The Turn of the Screw.” Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the classic story by Henry James, this suspenseful, provocative play is directed by Michael Ryken and stars James Hiser and Michele Leavy. …. More

Hosts Wanted for Exchange Students

Exchange students from Spain are looking for 20 San Leandro host families to stay with for a month this summer. The host family need only provide the students with their own bed and place to keep their belongings and some meals. The students will bring their own transportation costs, spending money, and telephone calling cards. The exchange program covers entertainment and excursion costs and each student is fully insured. …. Read more

Through the Lens: 33 Years of California

Rondal Partridge has been making photographs for most of his 85 years. The son of Imogen Cunningham, an apprentice to Ansel Adams, and protégé of Dorothea Lange, he was influenced by all three of these famous photographers. Partridge’s work—unique in its own right—is celebrated in the exhibit “From the Byways to the Highways: Rondal Partridge Photographs California 1936- 1969,” showing now through April 19 at the Hayward Area Historical Society Museum. …. Read more

Life at the Beauty Salon

Pity the local ensemble cast that has to compete with audience memories of Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, and Julia Roberts in “Steel Magnolias,” one of the most popular films of 1989. That is the task facing California Conservatory Theater’s current production of “Steel Magnolias.” The production, featuring Nicole C. Julien, Monica Cortes Viharo, Mary Ann Mackey, Kathryn Tkel, Katja Rivera, and Pat Parker (seen in CCT’s “Driving Miss Daisy” last season), and directed by Dawn Monique Williams, follows the friendships of six Louisiana women as played out in that bastion of female empowerment, the small-town beauty salon.  …. Read more

Bishop O’Dowd Actors Perform this Weekend

High School will perform “Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust,” this weekend in a return engagement. The play was a hit when presented last fall at O’Dowd. “Left to Tell” is based on a book by Immaculee Illibagiza While living in Rwanda, Illibagiza escaped to a refugee camp … …. Read more

San Leandro Boxer Unleashes a Winning Combination

World Championship boxer Nonito “Filipino Flash” Donaire, Jr., of San Leandro has always viewed the “jab,” or front-hand punch, a fundamental technique in boxing. Now, he is naming his first non-profit organization after that basic technique. Donaire, 25, was honored earlier this month at Tommy T’s Comedy and Steakhouse in Pleasanton in recognition of his new organization, JAB, and his recent crowning as IBF and IBO Flyweight World Champion. …. Read more

Led Zepellin Reunites and Releases ‘Mothership’

Considering the fabulous reviews, Led Zeppelin’s reunion last week in London was the rock event of the new millenium…to date, at least. A few intriguing stats: there were millions of requests for the 18,000 tickets, the highest known scalped price for a pair went for $168,000, and drummer Jason Bonham was approximately 10 years older than his father (John) when he died in 1980, sending Zeppelin into retirement. …. Read more

Arts, Crafts and Good Food

’Tis the season for traditions, and two community favorites are back this year to help with finding that perfect gift, whether it’s for someone else or you. The Fourth Annual Holiday Art and Craft Sale at Creekside Community Church, 951 MacArthur Blvd. will be Friday, Nov. 30 from noon to 7 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 1 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Then, next weekend is the Fifth Annual Zocalo Holiday Art Benefit Show at the Zocalo Coffeehouse, 645 Bancroft Way (at Dutton), on Saturday, Dec. 8 from 9 to 5 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 9 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. …. Read more

‘A Tuna Christmas’ Delivers Holiday Fun

As this reviewer has noted in the past, there is something inherently amusing about a man in a dress. Throw in a Texan drawl, though, and you can go either way — a hysterically comic character or an over-the-top patronizing caricature. Fortunately for San Leandro theater-goers, Michael Patrick Gaffney and Colin Thomson, stars of the California Conservatory Theatre’s current production “A Tuna Christmas,” hit their marks in more ways than one. The two actors are charged with realistically portraying the 22 inhabitants of Tuna, the thirdsmallest city in Texas, on Christmas Eve. …. Read more